Intruder jailed for breaking into house and sexually and physically assaulting woman
Olivia Kelleher
An intruder who broke into the home of a mother and teenage daughter before sexually and physically assaulting the older woman has been jailed for six and a half years.
Christopher Ryan, with an address at Fernhill in Clonakilty in West Cork, was on bail in relation to a rape charge when the offence occurred at a house in Co Cork in January 2025.
The 34-year-old, who is originally from Thurles in Co Tipperary, pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of the woman, physical assault causing harm to her and her daughter, false imprisonment of them both and burglary at the property.
Det Garda Paul Cullen previously told the court that a neighbour raised the alarm shortly before 5am on January 12th, 2025, when she heard the young girl shouting for help.
The neighbour went to the assistance of the teen, who told her there was a man in their home hitting her mother. She said that they were both asleep in their home when “a man came in and started beating” them.
The older woman told gardaí that she had woken up to the sound of their barking dog. She realised that there was a man in the room.
She “kicked out” but the man overpowered her and digitally penetrated her vagina and anus through her pyjamas.
The man, who was later identified as Christopher Ryan, repeatedly hit the older woman in the forehead and on the left side of face. She told gardaí that she felt that the intruder was trying to knock her out.
However, he stopped punching her when he saw her young daughter trying to escape from the property. He ran to the landing. The woman grabbed a hurley that she had in the house and followed Mr Ryan out.
She hit him on the head, and he fell. She then went looking for her daughter, who had managed to get out of the house.
A neighbour spotted the intruder hiding in a green area. He led gardaí to him when they arrived at the scene. Christopher Ryan was arrested and charged in connection with the incident.
In a victim impact statement, the older woman said that she was constantly trying to “block out” the flashbacks she suffered from the incident.
“I don’t feel safe anywhere – I am now terrified of the dark, something I had never experienced or understood before – I am terrified of getting into my car in the dark, checking to see if there is a man following me – I am scared all the time now.
“I don’t even want to think about or share with anyone how I physically feel sick, dirty and ashamed, violated, and I want to puke when I think about what happened to me in front of my daughter.
"There is no amount of showering I can do to make myself feel clean again."
Her daughter said in her victim impact statement that she is afraid to go anywhere on her own, arising out of the incident.
“The fact that he broke into our house …. where I am supposed to be safe, makes me even more scared about what can happen in other places. Now, I don’t feel safe in my own house, so I can’t have friends over for a sleepover, and I can’t sleep in my friend’s house.
“I have also developed really bad trust issues with adults ... when people say everything is going to be okay and nothing is ever going to happen to me, I automatically assume that what they are saying is lies because something bad did happen.”
Defence counsel Donal O’Sullivan said that his client was apologetic and remorseful for his actions.
Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford said that the victims in the case “had behaved very bravely” on the night of the offence.
“They should be proud of what they did for each other.”
She said that it was an “appalling incident” and a “terrifying attack” on the victims. The women had told gardaí that they believed that the intruder was under the influence of drugs at the time of the offence.
Ms Justice Lankford noted that Mr Ryan was without previous convictions until the rape offence in 2023.
In July of last year Mr Ryan was jailed for ten and a half years after he pleaded guilty to rape, sexual assault, assault causing harm and damage to a window at the home of a woman in Galway in 2023.
Ms Justice Lankford jailed Mr Ryan for eight years but agreed to suspend the final 18 months to allow him to remain under the supervision of the Irish Probation and Welfare Service for a period of four years.
The sentence will run consecutively to the sentence
Mr Ryan is already serving for rape.
Ms Justice Ryan said that it was vital that the 34-year-old tackle his issues with addiction whilst in custody.
He is also required to undertake offender-focused work. Mr Ryan has already been included on the Sex Offenders Register.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.
